Parents and brother beat boy because he became a Christian, Tennessee cops say

Three family members were arrested after the son said they beat him for becoming a Christian, according to Tennessee police.

Police conducted a welfare check at the Nashville home shortly before midnight Dec. 11 following a request from the juvenile boy’s employer, according to Davidson County arrest affidavits obtained by McClatchy News.

A Metropolitan Nashville Police Department officer found the boy “wide-eyed,” disheveled and trembling, with a scratch along the back of his hand, unevenly cut hair and lumps on his face, police said.

The boy told police he had recently become a Christian and his Muslim family attacked him over his decision. During the altercation, the boy said his family “demanded he recant and say he was a Muslim,” police reported in the affidavit.

He said his brother, mother and father “repeatedly punched him and spat in his face,” then his mother scratched the back of his hand with a knife, according to police.

The boy said this continued until police arrived at the home in southeast Nashville. He was taken to a hospital.

The mother, 46, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and denied assaulting her son, police said.

The 29-year-old brother and 57-year-old father were both charged with assault, domestic bodily injury.

Attorney information for the family members is not listed in Davidson County records. McClatchy News could not immediately reach the public defender’s office for attorney information.

This story was originally published December 18, 2023 at 12:38 PM with the headline "Parents and brother beat boy because he became a Christian, Tennessee cops say."